Blood Calls To Blood
by deathcurse
Summary: Finding the right Jewel Seed will save Alicia...for her sister, Fate would gladly fight anyone in her way, even that young TSAB mage trying to stop her.  There's no tie stronger than family, right? But things aren't as simple as they appear to be...
1. Chapter 1

**Blood Calls To Blood**

Chapter 1

The Jewel Seed flared out of hiding, sending a blue column shooting upwards into the sky. It was still early enough that no one was out on the streets to see the superfluous display of magic, but Fate didn't want to risk being seen. Anyone could look out their window from the tall skyscrapers and see the ruckus, and Fate had explicit instructions not to let herself get caught.

**"Sealing Mode."**

"Let's hurry and get this done, Bardiche."

**"Affirmative."**

Fate concentrated, blasting the Jewel Seed with a burst of yellow magic as Bardiche confirmed, **"Sealing."** The Jewel Seed pulsed threateningly, but finally subdued and faded into a dull blue diamond once again.

"Jewel Seed XXV," Fate murmured, absorbing the Jewel into Bardiche's core and flying away from the site before any curious folk showed up. "Hopefully, this is the one Onee-chan needs, right Bardiche?"

_Good job, Fate! _A warm voice praised her telepathically, making Fate smile slightly. _I knew that you would do well on your own!_

_Thanks, Linith,_ Fate replied, blushing shyly. _But knowing you're there looking out for me really helps._

_Let's go home now, shall we?_

About to agree, Fate suddenly jerked to a halt, hovering in mid-air. Something felt off—she could feel strong signs of approaching magic in the area. One was another Jewel Seed, but the other...an approaching teleport?

_Linith?_

_It's not me! _Linith warned, her mental voice rising in alarm. _Run, Fate, it's probably the TSAB!_

_I can't! _Fate spun around and flew back into the heart of the city, scanning the streets for signs of the rampant Jewel Seed. _There's another one here! I have to get it!_

A growl echoed in Fate's head, but she could feel Linith acquiescing, the familiar joining the search in the outskirts of the city. Quickly then—if Fate could find the Jewel before the TSAB officers arrived...She _had _to get it. There was no way she could let her mother and sister down. After months of searching on other worlds, her mother had finally tracked down a large number of Jewel Seeds on this planet. And Fate knew, even though Mother tried to hide it from her, that her kind mother didn't have much time left. Before her mother dies, Fate wanted to fulfill her last wish.

A rainbow cascade of light beamed down into the alley practically in front of Fate, making her dive and hide behind a building corner.

She was too late.

When the teleport light faded two TSAB cadets stood in the alley, looking around with well-trained interest. They didn't look much older than Fate herself, probably nine or ten at the most, so she doubted that they were full officers—although the boy's Barrier Jacket was black and mildly resembled the Enforcer uniforms that Linith had shown Fate when teaching her about the Time-Space Adminstration Bureau. The other mage was a girl, looking far more cheerful than her serious and frowning partner.

Fate couldn't help staring longer at the girl. It was foolish of her, to be so fascinated, but she couldn't stop herself.

_Wow…her eyes…_

"Admiral, we are at the location," the boy reported to his Device as the girl moved off a small distance, scanning the area around them visually and exchanging quiet words with her own device. "There are no signs of magic activity, although I'm detecting higher than normal trace levels of magic."

Fate shrunk deeper into the shadow.

"Officer Takamachi, did you pick up any Lost Logia signs?"

The female mage giggled, turning to her partner with a smile. "Why so formal, _Officer Harlaown_?"

The boy blustered, his face still impassively serious but his tone rose in response to the teasing. "We're on duty right now, and it's important that we show proper regard to procedures…"

Fate grinned at the mage's flustered state, and Takamachi laughed openly, smiling kindly at Harlaown to take the sting from her merriment.

"Sorry…" She cocked her ear, listening to her Device's report. "I didn't find the specific location, but I'm definitely detecting a Jewel Seed. It's in this area. There may have been another one, but I'm not sure—if there were two then the second one is definitely inactive. Um…I'm also picking up another trace of magic—should I ask Heart to scan further?"

_Oh no. _

Mother had told her, don't let yourself be identified.

**"Thunder Rage."**

Fate burst from hiding as Bardiche's impromptu bombardment attack knocked through the auto-guards of both mages, blowing both of them off balance. If she could subdue both of them she might have enough time to find and seal the second Jewel Seed and teleport away before they could follow her.

"Lightning Bind!" She shouted, and caught the blue-haired boy in her spell but the girl had dodged out of the way. Fate barely got Bardiche up in time to block a powered punch, deflecting it to the side and springing back to get distance and regroup.

"We are TSAB officers!" The mage cried as she raised her hands defensively, not aggressive but clearly wary.

**"Photon Lancer."**

The girl threw up a brilliantly coloured shield, but Bardiche hadn't been aiming for the TSAB officers—all the streetlights and the building lamps around them exploded, sending shards of glass and wires over them. The street went from dim to nearly pitch black in an instant, granting Fate precious anonymity. Harlaown yelped as hot sparks hit his face as he strained against the binds. Fate grimaced—it wasn't going to hold him for more than another minute.

**"Thunder Smasher."**

_Bardiche, just enough strength to take them out! _Fate fretted, dodging Takamachi's offensive attack with her own lightning reflexes. She didn't want to hurt anyone, just incapacitate them enough so that she could go find the Jewel Seed and seal it without interference. Without Linith to help her with a glamour spell to mask her appearance, she didn't dare drag on a fight, even if the darkness helped hide her identity. The female mage let out a yell as she was hit by Fate's attack squarely; the yellow beam sizzled, exploding with lightning as it struck Takamachi's shield and Barrier Jacket.

Harlaown's Device beeped, and Fate heard a commanding officer's frantic bellow, "Both of you, get out of there!"

"Bardiche—scan for the Jewel Seed!"

"_Bardiche?_" the girl exclaimed, and Fate took advantage of her surprise to knock the mage's legs out from under her with a backhand swing.

"You're the one after the Jewel Seeds!" the boy yelled, snapping free of her lightning binds at that instant. "Durandal, Blaze Cannon!"

"Wait!" Takamachi cried out but Harlaown had already sent his attack ripping towards Fate.

Fate back-flipped away from the beam, taking to the sky. Two against one…she needed help.

_Linith! _She called as she sent another Photon Lancer to distract Harlaown.

_Precia wants us to retreat! _She heard Linith's reply. _You can't get caught by the TSAB!_

_But Alicia…_ Fate bit her lip, wavering.

She had hesitated too long.

**"Defenser."**

An armoured fist slammed into her auto-shield, sending Fate backwards from the force. The female mage's second blow broke through, but Fate had already swung Bardiche back, switching it to scythe form and slashing upwards with the yellow blade. Takamachi blocked it with a forearm and kicked, connecting with Fate's side. She grunted in pain, retreating—her Barrier Jacket wasn't as armoured as her opponents, so she had better get some distance between them. It was the first time she was outmatched in a melée that Fate could remember!

"Arc Saber!"

Takamachi dodged the spinning crescent, smiling with pride before yelping and scrambling as it whizzed back to target her again.

Now was her chance. Fate brought Bardiche up vertically in front of her, focusing hard on the coordinates. The teleportation circles blazed out from Bardiche's base, and Fate felt the sparkle of magic floating up around her.

"Not so fast!" Takamachi lifted her fist, the motion raising an enormous barrier around them all, the greenish-purple hue casting a sickly glow over the entire street and city. Fate's teleport spell fizzled out with the shift in dimension, leaving her trapped.

"Stop right there!" Harlaown added, brandishing his Device.

Fate vanished in a blaze of lightning speed.

She could hear them chasing her, but she had both of them beat in terms of speed. Keeping to the darkest shadows between buildings, Fate zipped through as many corners and rooms as she could find, looping back and zagging vertically up apartment faces before finally tucking herself underneath a building ledge and wrapping her black cape around her—and froze.

Old-fashioned trickery worked just as well as glamour sometimes. Takamachi flew by so close to Fate that she could have reached out with Bardiche and rapped the other girl on the shoulder as she soared by, peering about for signs of Fate. As Fate hoped, bureaucracy interrupted the two young mages' search before they began to use search magic.

"Takamachi!" The commanding officer's voice sounded from Harlaown's Device again. "I thought I told you two to get out of there!"

"I'm sorry Admiral!" Fate heard the female mage say. "But the suspect was casting a teleport rune, so I had to stop her!"

"This was supposed to be a Lost Logia investigation—neither of you are ready to face an unknown suspect on your own. I want you to lower the barrier and return to the ship immediately—"

"Admiral Harlaown," a fourth voice joined them, a woman's voice who sounded soft and assuring. Her tone was that of a calm instructor about to step in to take over for her students. Indeed, Fate saw the young girl-mage flinch dejectedly as if hearing the voice was a kind of reprimand. "I am inside the barrier, and I will assist in the search. We do have a chance of capturing the rogue mage—"

_There was a third one! _Fate quickly took to the air, keeping as much of herself shielded in her black cape as possible as she crept around the back of the building. From what she had overheard of the conversation, the third mage was the experienced one she had to look out for. She doubted that she could get around the cadet officers' teacher as easily. So she had to hide instead of knocking out the barrier herself, and that made Fate twitchy.

_Linith! _Fate called out mentally, floating under the deep shadow of the building ledge, Bardiche's yellow eye hidden under one of her black-gloved hands. _Can you break the barrier?_

_I'm sorry Fate! _Linith apologized, and Fate could feel her familiar working hard to try and counter the girl's barrier. _I think I need the mages distracted, so that I can try to exploit the moment of opportunity and do a Barrier Break!_

Fate winced, and peeked down again. The boy had flown off somewhere, but she could still see the female mage checking the area below in a grid pattern, her Barrier Jacket looking formidable. She didn't relish the odds of taking any of them on again if she could avoid it, especially the girl.

_How much time do you need?_ She asked.

_Five minutes!_

Five minutes seemed like nothing at any other time, but in a fight it was an eternity. Better to hide and wait it out—

A warm and glowing blade pricked Fate's cheek, and she froze, seeing the golden halo from the magical blade flooding her field of vision.

"Surrender peacefully, and you will be given the right to a trial," that older female voice declared softly behind Fate, the hand holding the weapon steady and confident. Fate tensed, weighing her chances of catching her captor by surprise but the woman's next words dashed her hopes.

"I am an Enforcer, and I swear that you will have a chance to tell your story if you don't resist."

Fate bit her lip, hesitating. As if sensing her uncertainty, the mage added, her tone soothing and gentle,

"I swear to you on my good name as a TSAB Enforcer. My name is Fate—_Fate Testarossa Harlaown_."


	2. Chapter 2

**Blood Calls To Blood**

Chapter 2

Fate gasped, stiffening in shock. How could this be? She spun around, completely forgetting that the Enforcer had a weapon in her face in her need for confirmation with her eyes.

Red eyes met red eyes.

The Enforcer's mouth dropped open in a mirror of Fate's shock. The light cast from her Device—_her _Bardiche—illuminated their faces enough to see the identical features in the darkness. The TSAB officer looked like an older version of Fate, in her mid-twenties, although her hair was styled differently, in a single ponytail. Even so, they looked like exact twins, differentiated only in years.

_She said her name was Fate. Fate Testarossa!_

"What are you?" Fate cried out, raising Bardiche as if to physically fend off the horrifying discovery.

"Who are _you_?" Her doppelganger exclaimed, her red eyes narrowing in a detective's scrutinizing stare.

"Fate-mama!" Takamachi's voice called from behind the Enforcer as the girl flew up to them.

"Vivio, stay back!" Enforcer Testarossa warned, her gaze unmoving from Fate's, but Fate acted on her moment of distraction.

"Photon Lancer!" She shouted, thrusting her hand forward and launching a dozen shots towards the two officers.

Her double flipped out of the way faster than Fate ever could have done while Vivio put up a rainbow shield. Fate zipped for the new opening to escape but the Enforcer dove down at her, her weapon shifting from a scythe into a broadsword shape mid-dive.

If Fate got out of this, she was going to get Linith to figure out how to get her Bardiche to do that too.

The other Fate shouted, "Plasma Lancer!"

Fate dodged the lightning arrows, but it had only been a distraction—the moment she looked up again the Enforcer was cleaving at her head with her huge sword.

Bardiche's shaft blocked the blade for a heartbeat before snapping into two, sending Fate crashing into a wall and blowing a hole in the drywall.

Stunned, Fate shook her head. Ignore the ringing, get rid of those sparkling lights in her vision...she groped for Bardiche with numb fingers. But Vivio snatched it up first as Enforcer Testarossa levelled her weapon at Fate in mute warning.

"Please surrender," the Enforcer repeated, the only difference from before being the slight waver in her voice as she looked at Fate.

In her head, Fate heard, _BARRIER BREAK!_

The barrier shattered above them, the dome splintering in a thundering explosion that shook the buildings. Fate lunged desperately at the cadet, bowling the surprised Vivio over as the blonde reacted to Linith's Barrier Break spell. It was like smashing into a stone golem, but Fate managed to rip Bardiche from the other girl's grip and break free before the stronger mage could seize her.

"Stop!" Enforcer Testarossa blocked Fate's way, a spell circle blazing beneath her feet as she readied an attack.

Fate ignored her. "Sonic Form!"

"DIVINE BUSTER!" Vivio yelled, but she was too slow. Her attack blasted the wall behind Fate as Fate shot away, streaking in the sky towards the outskirts of the city.

Fate blazed away, pouring as much speed as she could into her new form. She didn't care if she left a trail, she just had to outrun them and get to Linith. With Linith giving her cover, Fate could teleport both of them home before the TSAB could catch up. Harlaown and Takamachi looked like traditional fighters, not lightning mages, so there was no way they could possibly catch up with her in time to stop her.

_Fate! _Linith called worriedly. _Are you alright?_

_Who was she? _Fate cried out desperately as she cut through the air at high speed. _Linith, she called herself _Fate_!_

Something slammed into her, knocking Fate out of her path and causing her and her assailant to crash into the ground, smashing a crater in the concrete. Fate groaned, but surprisingly her limbs didn't hurt as much as she feared—it seems that she had fallen on top of the other person, who had spun them around to take the brunt of the impact. She tried to fly again but an armoured gauntlet seized her cape, and her older doppelganger shook her fiercely.

"Wait! Who are you?" Enforcer Testarossa demanded, her own Bardiche tightly clenched in her hand as she kept her iron grip on Fate. Her Barrier Jacket was different from Fate's but still frightfully similar, and the lack of cape or other accessories on her streamlined Jacket gave Fate a hint as to how the Enforcer managed to overtake Fate's fastest speed.

"Who are _you?_" Fate cried out, struggling to free herself. "I'm Fate Testarossa!"

"You can't be!" the Enforcer rejected, her red eyes pained. "Are you…Alicia?"

Fate struck out with Bardiche, but Enforcer Testarossa blocked it easily, her strength nearly disarming Fate but she clung onto Bardiche tightly, feeling her shoulder twist painfully with the powerful parry. "Alicia is my _sister!_" Fate yelled.

The Enforcer's eyes widened in shock and confusion, but her grip didn't loosen in the slightest. "How do you know…" Her eyes flicked upwards, and Fate automatically looked up too to follow her double's line of sight.

A snarling mountain lion collided with the Enforcer, bowling the woman over and ripping her off of Fate. As big as a small bear with her thick ruff raised over muscular shoulders, Linith roared, lunging at Enforcer Testarossa again but the Enforcer evaded by flying in a sharp turn.

"Linith!"

Linith paused mid-strike, confused to hear her name coming from the stranger. Fate also gaped—how did this woman know her mother's familiar?

**"Lightning Bind."** The Enforcer's Device said, and Linith yowled as yellow rings bound her legs, sending her sprawling back into the ruins of the street.

"Linith!" Fate cried out, raising her hand. "Photon Lancer!"

The bombardment didn't phase the Enforcer at all as the tall blonde dodged nimbly around the shooting spheres, coming back at Fate with her Bardiche shifted into a glowing sword form.

Fate blocked the blade with the edge of her scythe, trying to flank the Enforcer but she wasn't fast enough. Enforcer Testarossa looped her and caught onto Fate's right wrist, twisting it behind her back and tangling Fate's arms in her own cloak before Fate could break away.

"Surrender, and you will have the right to—"

Storm clouds boomed overhead.

Both of them looked up, seeing the abnormal clouds collecting in a darkish layer across the sky. Fate's heart soared when she recognized the crackle of purple lightning that snapped in the clouds before streaking down at them in a silent jagged slash. The Enforcer let go of Fate, rocking back on her heels with the oddest expression on her face, agony mixed with desperation.

"Mother!" the Enforcer cried, stretching one hand out towards the thunderous storm.

Fate flew to the bound Linith and called up her teleportation sigils. "Run!" She couldn't help shouting at Enforcer Testarossa as she felt her own teleport fire up, the only warning she had time to give.

The last thing Fate saw was the Enforcer screaming, tears running down her cheeks as Precia's purple lightning struck her, flooding the entire scene with an explosion of magic and searing light.

**O**

"Fate, maybe you should wait a bit before—" Linith tried to say, but Fate marched straight ahead, not even stopping to banish her Barrier Jacket as she walked down the broken road.

"How could she not have told me!"

"Maybe Precia didn't want to worry you," Linith said quietly, giving up on convincing Fate to drop the issue.

Fate gave her a side-long glance. "Did _you _know about her, Linith? That other Fate?"

"No," confessed Linith, shifting into her human form and keeping up next to Fate, reaching up to adjust her hat with one hand. But Fate suddenly felt a watchful suspicion rise inside her stomach. How did she know if Linith was really telling the truth? "But I'm sure that Precia had a good reason for not telling you, Fate."

"A good reason for not telling me that I have another sister? An _older _sister, even older than Alicia-onee-chan…" Fate swiped downwards with Bardiche, frustrated. "She could have been helping us! Mother and Alicia don't have much time left…I just don't understand!"

They had reached the ruined palace doors, and Fate pushed it open impatiently. One of the door jewels gleamed menacingly, but since nothing obvious happened Fate ignored it and kept walking. Growing up amongst all sorts of weird magics and Lost Logias had made her immune to the normal reactions one had to mysteriously glowing items.

"Mother!" Fate called out firmly as she opened the door to the private bedroom by the throne hall.

Linith grunted as she walked into Fate's back when the blonde halted in the doorway.

"Yes, Fate?" Precia asked slowly, turning from where she had been sitting and reading to Alicia, the tired lines around her eyes extra deep today.

Abashed, Fate crept into the bedroom more quietly, coming next to them and laying one gloved hand on her mother's shoulder. "Are you feeling alright today, Mother?" She picked up the blanket on the edge of the couch and draped it over Precia's lap.

"All right," Precia assured her falsely, a quaver in her voice stifling what Fate knew to be one of her exhausting coughing fits. "We did some reading today."

"That's nice," Fate replied softly. It took her a moment to realize that Precia was looking curiously and somewhat cautiously at Bardiche, still in Device Form. With a thought, Fate banished the form and pocketed the yellow triangle, letting her Barrier Jacket fade along with her anger. She touched the glass lightly, seeing her fingers linger over her sister's cheek. "I'm sorry, onee-chan, but I couldn't get the other Jewel today."

She had expected her mother to exclaim in disappointment, but Precia was silent.

Fate remembered her mother's lightning.

"…You saw her, didn't you? When you were watching out for me."

At least her mother didn't lie to her, like she sometimes did when Fate was little.

"Yes."

"Did you hear her?" Fate asked, trying to keep herself calm and quiet. She didn't want to sound like she was accusing her mother of anything, but her ache to know the truth wouldn't permit her to let it go. Making sure to watch her mother's face closely, Fate said, "That woman…that Enforcer. She…she called herself _Fate Testarossa_…and she called you _Mother._"

**O**

Vivio straightened as Admiral Chrono Harlaown entered the debriefing room, his grim face lightening into a brief smile for Karel before he became serious again. "Please, everyone have a seat."

Most of them had been sitting already, and Vivio chose a seat next to Fate. She wanted to touch her mama's sleeve, but they were still on duty at the moment. Vivio couldn't shake the numb terror that had seized her heart when she had found her mother lying burned and still in a huge crater blasted into the street. Like a fool she had stared and cried until Karel had shot past her and started checking on the unconscious Fate's vitals, yelling in relief that she was still alive.

Fate looked up, and she patted Vivio's hand wordlessly in reassurance.

"Are you alright, Fate?" Chrono asked the moment he sat down, looking at his sister without hiding his worry.

"I'm fine," Fate answered, her voice edgy and distant.

"That was a really bad hit."

"I've endured it before," Fate said tersely, giving him a look that Vivio recognized as the _let's not talk about this in front of the kids _look. Clearing his throat, Chrono turned to the rest of them.

"Officer Cadet Karel Harlaown and Officer Cadet Vivio Takamachi, please give us your reports."

Red with pride and nerves, Karel started their report as Vivio kept staring at her mother's face. For all the years that Vivio had been living with her Nanoha-mama and her Fate-mama, she had never seen her kind, gentle mother have that haunted, anguished ghost lurking in her eyes.

Right then, despite trying to be brave like her new rank would demand…Vivio really wanted her Nanoha-mama to come and make things right again.

The adults listened to Karel's report, and Vivio obligingly added her input where she had been present instead of Karel. But really, the whole thing seemed kind of pointless—they hadn't lost radio contact during the whole battle, and from the small facial tics Uncle Chrono made as Vivio described her mother's double's attacks, the adults clearly recognized all the attack spells themselves. Other than to give her and Karel experience making mission reports, Vivio couldn't see why they wanted them to describe the weird young Fate at all.

Were they hoping to figure out something else about the double?

"Fate," Chrono said, clearly getting tired of the formalities and dispensing with the titles for the sake of brevity, "Who do you think that girl is? She looks just like—"

"—me," Fate finished. "Like who I used to be, when you and Nanoha…first met me."

"Exactly. Did Precia Testarossa…clone Alicia again?"

"She had to have," Fate said quietly. "But that girl is different…she knew about Alicia-onee-san."

"Um," Karel said hesitantly, confusion on his face.

"Fate-mama didn't know about Aunt Alicia until the end of the Jewel Seed Incident," Vivio told him, also dispensing with the ranks. "But that Clone Fate did…so she must have had a different upbringing than Fate-mama did." She turned to the adults. "But I thought that Precia Testarossa…died. She died during that battle in the Garden, when she tried to use the Jewel Seeds to go to Al-Hazard."

Even though Fate hadn't liked telling her children any of the sad details about her life with Precia, she hadn't hid anything from them either. The last time anyone had ever seen Precia and Alicia Testarossa was when they had fallen through the cracks between dimensions, trailing nine glittering Jewel Seeds in their wake.

Vivio asked aloud, "How can Precia be alive?"

"She got there."

"Fate?" Chrono said.

The tall blonde ran her fingers over the holoscreen tablet in front of her, not even aware of her action. "She got there," Fate repeated, her voice trembling. "To Al-Hazard."

"But she didn't have enough Jewel Seeds," Karel protested. Following in the footsteps of his extended family, he had chosen to specialize in Lost Logia, and under Yuuno's tutelage he had unearthed a vast amount of knowledge about the old relics of ancient times. "She was short five Jewels…without a direction or proper power output, Precia should have been lost in dimensional limbo. How could she have reached Al-Hazard?"

"She _needed _to get there." Fate smiled slightly, still staring at the tabletop. "If you need something hard enough, you'll find a way. Mother found a way. She had to, to save Alicia."

"But if she got there, why is Alicia still dead?" Vivio asked, belatedly realizing how crash that sounded. "I mean, why didn't she manage to restore Alicia? Why go through the trouble to creating another clone, and giving her memories…it seems like a lot of trouble."

"Because you _can't _bring the dead back to life," Chrono said.

Both Vivio and Fate flinched.

"But I know that Mother won't stop trying," Fate said. She was playing with Bardiche in one hand, turning the golden triangle over and over in her fingers. "So she must be sending…that other Fate out to search for something that she thinks will resurrect Alicia-onee-san. Maybe a specific Jewel Seed, like how Lutecia had been searching for the right Relic to bring her mother back from her coma." Reaching out, Fate clasped Vivio's wrist warmly. "We know that implanting a Relic inside a human is possible."

That's right, Vivio realized suddenly. She, Fate-mama and this new Fate…all of them were made from the same Project F. So it made them…family, in a way?

Chrono grunted, rapping his fingers against the table. "How about the clone Fate's familiar? Do you know it?"

"She _sounded _like Linith, Mother's familiar who helped raise me and taught me magic," Fate admitted. "But her familiar form wasn't anything like my Linith. She…disappeared one day, when I was growing up, after she finished Bardiche for me." She bit her lip, looking troubled. "It's not hard, for Mother to make another familiar…that's her specialty. Linith was my teacher, but it looks like she made this new Linith to be that Fate's bodyguard instead, using an Alzas mountain lion instead of a Midchildan mountain cat. I don't know why she'd name her new one Linith too, unless…"

"Unless?"

"The clone could be me," Fate suggested, theorizing aloud. "From another dimension or reality. Maybe that really _was _Linith from somewhere, and that Fate was me but…aware of my Mother's real plans?"

"I don't think so," Vivio said, blushing a bit at actually contradicting her mother over an official case detail. "When I was fighting with her, her Bardiche was slightly different than yours, Fate-mama. It would say "Affirmative" instead of "Yes, sir"—like the software was different, even if it looked the same. And she seemed really careful to hide her face until you caught her, as if she knew how dangerous it would be to be recognized."

"We won't know until we encounter her again," Chrono said practically. He looked at Karel and Vivio. "Anyways, good work today, you two. You're both off duty for the rest of the day."

Both Vivio and Karel rose and saluted, as that was clearly a dismissal. After filing out into the hall and shutting the door behind them, Karel scowled and gave Vivio a punch on the arm. "If you hadn't spoken up at the end, they would have forgotten that we were there when they started talking about the really grown-up stuff," he informed her, annoyed.

"What else is there to say, that they haven't already said?" Vivio countered with indignation.

"Wondering if we can parley with the clone or not, and what Precia Testarossa might be up to." Karel crossed his arms. "Assuming that she really _did _reach Al-Hazard and isn't dead, there could be an unforeseen amount of power and new magic at Precia's disposal. They're probably going to talk about how much risk we can take meeting her in battle and stuff like that."

"Oh," Vivio frowned. Around her cousin, she sometimes wished that he'd treat her less like a kid, and for a fleeting moment she wished that Kris wasn't a bunny but something fiercesome, like Vita-sensei's hammer or something. She stroked Kris's soft stomach in silent apology for the disloyal thought. "But that clone—" She really didn't like using that term. Vivio tilted her head, considering. "If Fate-mama can talk to the other Fate, then we'd be able to resolve everything, right? We don't _have _to fight her."

"Regulations have become tighter over Lost Logia," Karel informed her. "Especially after all the recent crises. I don't think that we'll be allowed to just let Precia and the clone Fate get away with dangerous uses of Lost Logia, unlike before."

Vivio shook her head, clenching her fists and feeling an iron core of resolve rising in her chest. "I can't accept that," she said, and only once the words were out of her mouth did Vivio realize how absolutely true they were.

**O**

"Are you sure about that?" Chrono asked again, clearly conflicted. Logically, Fate knew that he agreed, but as an older brother he couldn't help but make an attempt to talk her out of her plan. "We could just as easily set the plan as a baited trap and capture her the moment she teleports in."

"But then we wouldn't know how to get to where Mother is," Fate answered again evenly. "This way we can capture my double _and _track down Mother, if she really is in Al-Hazard."

"All right, all right," Chrono grumbled, conceding. "But I want the kids there too, in case you need backup."

"I don't want to put them—"

"They'll be _fine,_ Fate. Vivio did really well against the clone in the last fight. And besides, if she's anything like you, she wouldn't be fighting to kill, so they're safe."

Fate sighed, standing up and moving over to the _Claudia's _wall-length window, staring down on Ruwella, half-lit by the yellow sun hidden by the hull of the ship. The planet wasn't as blue as Earth was, but the resemblance was close enough that memories of her time on the _Asura _after the Garden of Time had collapsed resurfaced again.

It didn't help that Fate had already been thinking of that part of her life.

"…Alright then."

"Good." Chrono rubbed his eyes wearily. It seemed to be a practiced motion for him. "God, I hope that Zetec can trace the dimensional coordinates fast enough, or else we're going to be stuck with either giving up on arresting Precia or letting the clone go so that we can have a second shot at tracing her teleport."

Fate's seriousness broke for an instant as she cracked a small smile. "I bet you're wishing that you had brought Amy with you like she had asked, huh?"

He sighed long-sufferingly. "Please don't rub it in as well. I'm already kicking myself twice over for talking her out of it—she would have hooked onto Precia Testarossa's magic traces and gotten us the exact coordinates before the lightning vanished." A soft light crept into his determined eyes at the thought, easing his tense shoulders.

Fate smiled again, although this time it wasn't quite as happy. "Yes, that would have made things a lot easier."

Chrono eyed her again, leaning forward and bracing his elbows on his chair armrests, his attention focused on her. "Fate…are you sure you're alright? I mean…" he coughed, "if you don't want to talk to me, I can always call and ask—"

"No!" Fate flinched at her own loud denial and lowered her voice. "You don't have to call anyone. I'm fine." She walked over to the door, tapping the door console. "I'm going to go take a shower. Call me if anything happens."

Chrono watched his sister leave, then got to his feet with a sigh. He may as well follow her example. His captain's quarters were far more military-like than his mother's had been, but even Chrono couldn't resist putting up the roughly hand-scrawn family portraits that Liera had made when she was five, nor the rock collection that Karel had found and that Amy had helped him mount in glass cases for a Father's Day present one year. He had a few more knick-knacks hidden away in a drawer, so that no one could call him sentimental if they happened to come into his room.

Besides, Yuuno or Hayate wouldn't let him hear the end of it if they saw his full collection of silly presents that he secretly kept to cheer him up on bad days. God knows that Amy already teased him enough about it, but at least she'd make up for the teasing right away.

And on that note, Chrono called up a holoscreen and called home.

"_Chrono!_" Amy's cheerful face filled his screen. Time differences were always a bit unexpected, but Chrono could tell from the sound of the running tap and the kitchen in the background that Amy was washing the dishes. "_I didn't expect to hear from you until tomorrow!"_ Her eyes brightened. "_Did Karel do well on his field mission?_"

"He did great," Chrono said, leaning back into his chair. "Things went a little rougher than expected, but both he and Vivio performed well under the pressure."

Amy blinked, and even though she didn't pause in her task her gaze turned thoughtful, reminding Chrono all over again how much respect the bridge crew deserved since none of them were as stupid as most officers assumed they were. "_Is something wrong? Do you need help?"_

Chrono very, very nearly asked her to come. But he couldn't, because that would be hard on his young bridge crew, who would be humiliated at his lack of faith in them, and tough on his wife, who had made a choice to give up her job to stay at home so that _he _could go away on missions. However, he could do something else.

"Yes, dear…can you call someone for me?"

**O**

"Fate?"

"…What is it, Mother?"

"You _do_ believe what I told you, right?"

"…"

"Fate?"

"I do."

"You…"

"I believe you, Mother. I love you, and I know that you've always loved me too, even if I'm not Alicia. Even if you were slightly distant when I was little, it's okay now for you to show it. And you do. I believe in you."

"That's good…Very good."

**O**

"Lightning-3, in position," Vivio whispered into her comlink.

"Lightning-2, ready," Karel answered promptly, and Vivio could just barely see his blue hair peeking over the rooftop ledge where he was lying in a sniper's position.

"Lightning-1," Fate's soft voice came over the communications system, but Vivio also heard her mother say it aloud from where she was standing in the middle of the street in Vivio's view. "Jewel Seed activating…now."

Jewel Seeds activate by the power of desire. It really didn't take a genius to guess why Fate had volunteered to be the one to activate it this time. Vivio rubbed her knuckles nervously, wishing she had decided to use her Adult Mode. Nanoha had warned her against becoming dependent on the boosted power instead of learning to hone her skills, so Vivio was keeping that as a reserve strategy. Having Karel and Fate-mama for back-up would probably make using her adult form against the Fate clone overkill anyways, so she might as well get the practice in while she could.

Vivio winced. She didn't like thinking about that other Fate that way… Hm, she couldn't think of anyone other than her Fate-mama as "Fate", so the other Fate could be…

"Fate-chan?" Vivio muttered to herself. She grinned. "Fate-chan." She liked the sound of that.

The eruption of wild magic had Vivio twitching, staring warily at the blue column that was blazing torrents of blue light into the sky. It was a good thing that they were in an abandoned part of the city and that Uncle Chrono had negotiated with the mayor to allow them to stage their operation there. Fate stood a few paces away from the Jewel Seed, readying Bardiche in Zamber form.

One thing Vivio had to say about her Fate-mama, no matter what version of her—she was very efficient. Not two minutes after the Jewel Seed activation did they hear Zetec's excited yell in their communications line.

"She's coming! Analyzing components—now!"

Vivio expected a warm golden glow, like the teleport circles that Fate had shown her before. But instead, a portal tore through the fabric of space, sending a cold wind gusting down the street as a nauseating array of colours flared out from the hole.

"**Warning—dimensional anomaly detected.**"

Fate lifted one armoured forearm to her face, using Bardiche's blade to block the wind and shield her eyes from the rampant magic.

"I'm picking up multiple traces!" Zetec exclaimed. "Magic patterns consistent with Enforcer Harlaown…Precia Testarossa…and a Jewel Seed?"

**"Sealing."** Bardiche intoned as Fate struck the activated Jewel Seed, turning the Lost Logia inert just as a gray mountain lion leapt out of the dimensional portal, followed by the younger Fate in her Barrier Jacket. Both of them tensed when they saw Fate holding the Jewel Seed in one armoured hand, watching them with a calm patience.

"Bureau dog!" Linith snarled, her hackles up defensively. "Give us the Jewel, or we'll make you regret it, whoever you are."

"Who are _you?_" Fate countered instead. She wasn't quite using her Enforcer voice, but she definitely wasn't being meek. "You're not the Linith I grew up with."

"She isn't?" the clone asked, mildly surprised. "But I remember her growing up…and I have your memories."

"You do?" Fate said hoarsely, her eyes widening.

"Don't talk to her, Fate!" Linith growled, starting to circle around to flank the Enforcer. "She's a traitor!"

The younger Fate looked conflicted, glancing back and forth between Linith and Fate. "Mother told me that she gave me your memories, so that I would know magic already. But I remember Linith—_my _Linith. So what do you mean?"

"Fate!"

"Wait, Linith," clone Fate commanded, her eyes hungrily taking in as much as she could of her older self. Linith subsided, growls still rumbling in her throat as she eyed Fate closely, her narrowed eyes on the Jewel Seed that Fate still held.

Vivio edged out a bit from behind the dumpster where she had been stationed, to give herself space to lunge if needed. The dimensional portal had closed, and Vivio hoped that Zetec had gotten enough readings to finish his analysis of the teleport so that they could follow behind them if the plan didn't work.

"The Linith who raised me disappeared after she gave me Bardiche," Fate told her clone, the clear strains of grief still in her voice. "I think that Mother had made another familiar after…you came."

"I don't remember Linith disappearing," the younger Fate said thoughtfully, lowering her Bardiche slightly from her defensive position. "That might be when Mother awakened me, so all my memories after that are my own," she said, a cheerful tone in her voice for figuring it out.

"She told you that she had made you as a replacement for Alicia, gave you _my _memories…and you still forgive her?"

The clone stiffened, her grip tightening on Bardiche. "She didn't make me as a replacement!" Now, Vivio had to disagree with that—from an outsider's point of view, it sounded a lot like Precia had made Fate-chan to replace Fate-mama. "Mother loves me just as much as she does Alicia-nee-san. Of course I forgive her. She's my…she's our mother!"

"Was…is Mother kind to you?" Fate asked, also unconsciously lowering her guard. Vivio winced and tensed—this was _not _part of the plan. They were supposed to find out how Fate-chan and Linith were teleporting to Al-Hazard, then go and stop Precia—or failing that, to convince them to take her Fate-mama with them. Unless, this was how Fate-mama meant to trick those two into believing her sincerity?

"Oh, yes," her clone nodded, smiling a little sadly. "Mother told me how she hadn't been as kind to you…" an edge entered that Fate's voice, "…which is why you betrayed Mother and Alicia-nee-san for the TSAB."

Linith's growl turned into a roar.

Fate didn't flinch. "I didn't turn my back on Mother and Alicia." Her deep eyes hardened with old pain. "Mother turned her back on _me._ And then it was too late for me to make amends…" She took a breath, closing her eyes briefly before opening them again. Holding out the Jewel Seed cupped in her palm, Fate said, "But now, after I saw you for the first time, Fate, I knew that I had a second chance."

Linith didn't look nearly as persuaded, but the younger Fate's face lit up in delight and fevered relief.

"I _told _Mother she was wrong about you!" She cried, practically vibrating on the spot with joy. It was odd for Vivio to see—most of the childhood photos of Fate-mama that she'd seen, Fate had a more reserved happiness, as if still uncertain that she deserved it. But this Fate didn't seem to have the same reservations. Vivio could tell that it had thrown Fate-mama off balance as well. The clone half-jumped, half-flew over and landed near Fate, grabbing her arm in a child's excitement. "You _do _care about Alicia-nee-san!"

"Let's move somewhere else," Linith suggested, her voice sounding pleasant but betrayed by the thick raised fur on her hackles. "The TSAB may be making their way here any minute. We can keep talking elsewhere."

"Good idea," the younger Fate agreed, her reply coming a bit too hastily to sound impromptu. They must have planned this earlier. She held out one gloved hand. "Give me the Jewel Seed, please?"

Vivio tensed, carefully placing her boot onto firmer ground without shifting the loose stones in the alleyway. While she and Karel were supposed to follow Fate-mama's lead, they had also been told to use their own judgement. If the clone Fate and Linith shifted to the side any more, Karel's line of fire would be blocked. If that happened, then Vivio would be the only one free to launch a surprise attack. Letting them get away with a Jewel Seed would be humiliating to Uncle Chrono and Fate-mama, and the trail would go cold.

Fate seemed to have the same thought, but her mama's expression didn't change in the slightest. "Can I please hold onto it?" She ignored Linith's low growling. "I...I want to be able to give Mother something that would make her happy. I could never really make her proud before."

It was an excellent lie, but to Vivio's disquiet the clone's hand remained outstretched. "I'll let you give it to Mother," the young Fate promised, a sympathetic smile on her lips. She lifted Bardiche and showed Fate the blue gleam in its yellow eye. "I already have some myself, see? So don't worry, you can give it to Mother yourself, but first..." She beckoned again.

Without hesitation, Fate handed the dormant Jewel Seed over, her gauntlet resting for a moment on her double's black glove. It was hard to read the look on her face. "I hope it's the one Mother wants."

"No, the one Alicia-nee-san needs," the other Fate corrected, inspecting the Jewel with an apologetic glance, as if asking forgiveness for being cautiously suspicious. Probably Linith had instructed her to be wary of traps—

And right then, Vivio realized that she could no longer see Linith anywhere.

"Don't give up the Jewel!" Zetec shouted, his voice ringing through Durandal and Sacred Heart right as Karel let out a choked yell as he was flung across the rooftop, his Device clattering out of reach. He yelled again, fighting, but Linith had seized the front of his Barrier Jacket and sprang, bringing both of them arcing off the building and into the ground with an earth-trembling landing.

"FATE, RUN!" Linith roared, one long-clawed paw slamming the disarmed Karel into the pavement as she pinned her captive down on the street. "IT'S A TRAP!"

"What—"

"Lightning Bind!"

Before Vivio could register what had happened, she found herself helplessly watching a stand off.

Linith had Karel under her powerful paws, her fanged snout lowering to close over the back of his neck. In that half-physical, half-telepathic communication method of familiars, Linith snarled at Fate, "Let her go, or I'll kill him."

Fate had one boot on her doppelganger's Device while her own Bardiche was levelled at the bound and struggling clone. Vivio expected her mother to use her stern Enforcer voice to order Linith to surrender, but she was surprised.

"Wait, let's just talk this out, okay?" Fate said soothingly, keeping her voice as soft as her midnight tones whenever Vivio woke up from nightmares.

They both saw Karel tense up, but bravely he didn't scream, even though Linith must have sunk her fangs into his neck. "_Now._"

"Alright, alright," Fate answered, immediately stepping back and releasing her younger clone. Her gaze fluttered between Karel's prone form and Linith's eyes. Vivio took the opportunity to creep forward a few meters. Now that she was closer she could see a wildness in Linith's eyes that made her shiver. No wonder Fate hadn't debated the point—she knew about familiars and the lines they would cross for the sake of their masters or charges.

"Fate, come here," Linith growled, her predator's stare still locked on her enemy, red-tinted drool dripping from her jaws.

The clone snatched up her weapon and scrambled over to Linith, turning around once to look at Fate with wounded eyes. Then she looked away and put a hand on Linith's shoulder as if needing the comfort.

"Banish your barrier jacket, and throw your Device over your shoulder now, or else I'll snap his neck."

Fate hesitated, but seeing Linith's eyes narrow had her quietly comply, her Barrier Jacket dispelling in a wave of golden pixels that peeled away then vanished in the air. Bardiche spun over her shoulder, the bladed form shrinking into a yellow triangle before clattering somewhere behind the Enforcer.

"I finished deciphering that transport spell—you need a Jewel Seed in order to cross to Al-Hazard!" Zetec's voice was frantic. "If you don't you'll be lost between dimensions!"

Golden circles spread outwards from the clone, already partway through the teleportation. Linith was backing up towards her charge, her teeth still clamped around Karel's neck, the boy motionless—whether he was scared that she'd snap his spine even by accident, or unconscious or dead, Vivio couldn't tell.

A cracking sound echoed down the street as the clone Fate finished her spell, an open portal tearing through the dimensions to open, glowing with runes and free energy at its edges. The blonde looked down at the Jewel Seed still in her hand, then looked up at Fate, her face darkly backlit by the portal. Something of anger, of hurt and of longing glinted in her red eyes as the wind from the portal whipped the ends of her black cape around her body, giving her a semblance of being the villain that Vivio knew she really wasn't.

Linith inched back again, her focus only on Fate and not on the doppelganger, assuming her to be safely behind her, nor on Karel, who clearly didn't amount to anything but leverage in the familiar's mind.

"Don't let them take him!" She heard Uncle Chrono yell, his voice wavering with a father's panic.

**"Sonic Shooter!"**

The young Fate threw up a shield as rainbow-coloured shots bombarded down on her and Linith, blasting chunks into the pavement and spraying black gravel upwards. Linith yowled as Vivio slammed her fist into her cheek, aiming for the muscles that controlled her jaws. The impact caused the mountain lion to release Karel, sending the boy tumbling limply onto the ground.

"DIVINE BUSTER!" Vivio didn't pay any attention to where Linith had gone, her close contact Buster spell blasting the familiar across the street and through a wall. She never stopped moving from the instant that she had launched her bombardment spell as a distraction, coming in close to ambush Linith and free Karel before continuing on to her true target.

She slammed bodily into the clone, seizing the other girl's wrist with both armoured gauntlets. There was no way the doppelganger could stop Vivio from wrenching the Jewel Seed out of her hands, caught off-guard and off-balance from the blitz attack.

But Vivio had misjudged the strength of her attack.

She had tackled the clone with enough force to drive both of them backwards, with the younger Fate providing no resistance from surprise. Their momentum carried them back further than Vivio had anticipated, and she only realized it when the ground suddenly vanished beneath them as they toppled head-first into the dimensional hole.

Vivio saw red—streaks of light that zig-zagged around the portal...the inside of her enemy's cape...and her mother's wide, terrified eyes as the portal sealed shut behind them.

* * *

_**Author's Note: Those of you who noticed the fact that "Officer Takamachi's" attacks in Chapter 1 were melee and not ranged hinted that something fishy was going on, congratulations! Also, for those who may have noticed that the Clone!Fate's Bardiche responded with "Affirmative" rather than the iconic "Yes, sir!"…for fun, go look for all the other little clues!**_

_**The original Linith was a Midchildan mountain cat, which is actually a small housecat-sized animal…but I wanted this ferocious beast, so I made up the Alzas mountain lion to suitably create the scary, powerful Linith 2.0 ^_^.**_

_**This story loosely takes place during ViVid after Vivio receives Sacred Heart but before she meets Einhart ^^. I say "loosely" because Vivio is not actually part of the TSAB military in ViVid, but I took some liberty with giving her a rank (and for Karel Harlaown's too) for the sake of preserving the twist in Chapter 1. **_


	3. Chapter 3

**Blood Calls To Blood**

Chapter 3

"VIVIO!"

"FATE!"

Fate jerked involuntarily to the sound of her name, but hearing Linith's equally frantic cry jolted her out of her own shock.

As a fighting mage, Fate had been drilled in knowing exactly how much strength to use when throwing any object in any direction, and still know precisely where it lands. She dove and rolled across the pavement, snatching up Bardiche mid-roll and burst into the air, transformed.

"Lightning Bind!" Fate didn't stop there, pointing Bardiche at the bound and snarling Linith. "Plasma Lancer!"

Ten arrow-bolts materialized behind Fate, shooting towards Linith and striking with an explosion of golden sparks and lightning, tearing a screech from the mountain cat's throat.

Linith collapsed, her whiskers singed and her head drooping to the ground.

"Fate?" Chrono cried.

She had already crossed over to Karel's side, checking the limp boy's pulse. "He's alright. A few gouges on his neck, but his spine feels solid." Somehow, Fate kept her voice from trembling. "I've captured Linith, but Vivio and my clone both disappeared into the portal." She took a breath to steady her shaking. "Admiral, I request a relief force to come and pick up the prisoner and Officer Cadet Harlaown, and for permission to pursue the second target."

"We're sending in a relief force," Chrono answered, "but you cannot pursue." Quickly, because he knew that she would respectfully tell him to stuff it and go after her daughter anyway, Chrono elaborated. "You need a Jewel Seed to pass through, remember?"

"The TSAB vault has—"

"More than that," interrupted Chrono. "The portal's backlash as it closed took us by surprise—it fried some of the _Claudia's _systems. Zetec did manage to find the quadrant of space the portal led to before the systems crashed, so we'll head there now. _Keep a close eye on the prisoner—_the clone may make contact, and we can use that to track her."

_Unlikely_, Fate despaired—Precia had a gift with familiars, but her mother had never seen them as anything but a tool. Tools who had no value other than what they were made to achieve for their master.

"Fate." Chrono's tone was low, as soft as Fate had ever heard from him. "We'll find Vivio, I promise."

It was probably an empty promise, Fate knew. How many of them had she herself made in the past to weeping parents?

But she believed him.

She had to.

**O**

Vivio was in a Heaven in Hell.

Tall cathedrals and spires rose from the crumbled streets, the buildings glinting with glass and jewels and marble, their tops jabbing into a red-clouded sky. The ruins of huge golems and other unidentifiable objects littered the street, their exteriors crusted over with rust and metal dust. If this was Al-Hazard, then Vivio found herself suitably awed and apprehensively reverent.

Either apocalypse had struck this amazing city, or the horrors the gilded surfaces had hid finally broke through to the surface. Whatever the cause, Al-Hazard was ruined, ghostly with the eerie silence of the battlefield grave.

Uncle Yuuno would be so jealous—

_Fate-mama! And the cl—_

Vivio froze when she felt the warm sizzling curve of a scythe touch her throat.

"Don't move," a quiet voice ordered from behind her.

"Please…" Vivio said, trying to keep her throat from moving as much as possible. After their trick, she didn't want to test this Fate's temper. "Please…can't we talk?"

"_I'll _talk," Fate said coldly, although her voice wasn't quite as stoic as she was pretending to be. "Put your hands slowly behind your back and give me the Jewel."

Vivio swallowed, twitching as the motion made Bardiche's blade nip into her skin. Even if she could manage to compute the teleport coordinates by herself and actually open a dimensional portal, she'd need a Jewel Seed to make it through without being swallowed into the abyss of dimensional space.

Fate-mama would never kill anyone.

But…

The blade jabbed into Vivio's neck, a sharp line of pain stinging under her chin.

"_Now._"

…this _wasn't _Fate-mama.

Slowly, Vivio raised her hands, then put them behind her back. She could guess at where the doppelganger was standing and try a surprise attack, but if Vivio was a fraction off or too slow, she may end up headless. Hadn't they been taught never to give in to criminals? But they'd also been instructed to do anything they can to stay alive…

Vivio opened her gauntlet, letting the Jewel Seed lie on her palm.

Lightning quick, it was snatched out of her hand.

"Now banish your Barrier Jacket, and throw your device to the side."

"I can banish my Jacket, but I need my device on me," Vivio lied, glad that Fate was behind her. No matter how hard Aunt Hayate tried to teach her, Vivio's face always gave away when she was lying, although she had mastered her aunt's sincere, seemingly guileless tone. "It helps me keep a health condition in check."

No response from behind her.

_Come on, _Vivio prayed—hopefully some god would hear her. _You're like Fate-mama, with a soft, marshmallow heart…you'll buy it, come on…_

"Do you give me your word that you won't try to run?" Fate finally asked.

Vivio didn't even have to lie. She wasn't going to run away. "Yes, I swear." She let her Barrier Jacket fade in rainbow ripples, getting to her feet once Fate had removed the blade.

"Walk," Fate ordered, shifting Bardiche to its shooting form. Without a Barrier Jacket any kind of shooting magic would be crippling, so Vivio meekly obeyed, stumbling a bit down the wrecked street.

"Um…hi," Vivio said, glancing over her shoulder at her captor. "My name is Vivio, Vivio Takamachi."

"Nice to meet you," Fate replied automatically. Any version of Fate-mama was unfailingly polite, it seemed.

"Um, in a way, I guess I'm your daughter?" Vivio scratched her head. "Or maybe like a niece? I'm Fate-mama's daughter, and you're her…er…"

The young Fate sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly even as she filled in, "Clone?"

"It's not a bad thing," Vivio said, half-defensive and half-annoyed at the self-deprecating tone. "My brother is a clone, and so am I."

"You're a clone too?" Fate stared at her, shocked and interested. "Of who?"

Vivio winced sheepishly. She should have expected that question. "Ah…Olivie Segbrecht."

Fate frowned, her mind clearly working over the name. Like usual, Vivio could tell the moment she had worked out who that was, as Fate's eyes widened.

"The Sankt Kaiser?"

"Yes," sighed Vivio, kicking a small chunk of rock with a shoe. The rock clattered and struck a heap of drones, causing something to glow eerily. Or it could have just been her imagination. It was probably her overactive imagination reminding her of all the books she'd read about Lost Logias, and the fact that she was now stuck in the real-life version of…

…Actually, the irony there was that the usual saying ended with "of Al-Hazard".

Instead of gushing, Fate's face turned contemplative, her deep red eyes distant as she mused over something.

"If you're the Sankt Kaiser's clone, then do you have her memories too? Genetic memories, I think they're called…where you remember what they did, and how they felt."

"No, I don't." Vivio tilted her head, observing Fate. "And you? Do you have Alicia's memories, or…"

Something closed in Fate's expression, and the lightning mage gave Vivio a little impatient prod in the back with Bardiche as if to move them along faster down the street as well as move through the current conversation to its end. "It doesn't matter—Enforcer Fate's memories were Alicia-nee-san's too."

"…Alright." Vivio managed to stop herself from adding a childish _If you say so._ She wasn't sure how it would matter, if this Fate had her Fate-mama's memories or Alicia's, but Vivio had the feeling that it did matter somehow.

The area darkened suddenly, and Vivio looked up as the blooded sky boiled over with deep purple clouds, casting long shadows on them.

The street was rising up, and there were fewer crumbling buildings around them as they walked on. At the top of this small hill towers staked out the corners of a glittering palace, the tall arches and jagged walls making Vivio feel very small and vulnerable as she stared at it from within its shadow.

What kind of kings had ruled this land before Al-Hazard fell? The entire city looked like a collection of relics from a creative, glorious race, but then why had this utopian-like city fallen into such ruins? This eerie crystalline and stone palace gave Vivio the shivers.

She couldn't help thinking about the wild speculations that Al-Hazard had been a land of _gods._

What powers did Precia Testarossa find here? What could Precia _do _with those powers?

Vivio shivered again.

"It wasn't like you thought."

Twitching at the sudden statement from the quiet Fate, Vivio turned her head. "Sorry?" Vivio asked, puzzled.

"From earlier," Fate clarified as they approached the great crystal gates of the palace. "I'm not ashamed of being a clone. I already knew—or thought—that I was Alicia-nee-san's clone."

"Then why the weird reaction?"

Fate hesitated for an instant, having second thoughts about confiding to a stranger and an enemy, but she had brought the topic up again because she clearly had wanted someone to confess to. "I thought that I had been born as Alicia-nee-san's sister…her twin. But now, I'm just…I'm just that other Fate's clone, I have part of her memories…" She trailed off as the tall gates opened, the hinges complaining their use in a series of high-pitched screeching.

The hall loomed dozens of meters above their heads, the large space adding to the chill that hung heavily in the air. Vivio hugged her arms to her chest as goosebumps rose on her skin. A soft hand patted her cheek as Kris snuggled closer to her neck.

Their steps echoed in the emptiness, the sounds travelling down the corridor and disappearing in the blackness hundreds of feet away. Through an open door to Vivio's right she caught sight of a massive throne hall, gleaming with broken glass and crystal strewn on the gold-tiled floor before they moved on past.

Bardiche's head nudged Vivio's shoulder, stopping her next to a set of carved doors. The slight hominess of the patterns made Vivio guess that this must be a bedroom of some kind, maybe even the chambers of the ruler.

Fate put one hand on the doors where they met in a nearly seamless line. Her brow was furrowed slightly, and her lip curled slightly where she was biting it.

"It just feels like…just a little…" Fate struggled to find a way to voice her thoughts, a mixture of dejection, sadness and what Vivio thought was fear in her face. Vivio couldn't move her gaze away, transfixed on the vulnerability. Quietly, almost guiltily, Fate said, "…like I'm just a replacement for her."

The bedroom doors rumbled, swinging open slowly and releasing a cold draft that made Vivio shiver, and shiver again when she looked into the room.

**O**

It only took three minutes and twenty seconds for the relief force to arrive. Fate knew this because she had been checking her time display every ten seconds between pacing along the alley, checking Karel's vitals and exchanging looks with Linith, who was still bound with lightning rings. The mountain cat familiar had regained consciousness minutes earlier and was currently quiet, curled up on her bound paws as much as she could in a predator's crouch.

Despite having the same name and the same animal form, Fate could immediately tell that this was not _her _Linith. This Linith had a youthful strength while Fate's Linith had had a mature intelligence.

A different guardian for a different purpose.

"I knew a Linith too," Fate said quietly to her. Linith began to growl, but Fate continued. "She took care of me, and taught me magic."

The rumbling growl in Linith's throat lessened slightly.

"Please," Fate appealed. "Will you help us help her? If the solution does not harm anyone, I promise that I will do anything in my power to help." She knelt down, keeping a respectful distance away from Linith's claws. "In my childhood, I had to search for the Jewel Seeds for Precia as well, and Mother hadn't been…easy…on me. Will you help?"

Linith eyed her with narrowed green eyes, her ears flat against her skull. "You," she said finally, drawing her lips upwards to expose white fangs, "are not my Fate."

If only Fate had brought Arf with her—maybe Arf could have talked this Linith into acting for the good of her master. But more than that…Fate wanted the old familiarity, to have someone who understood and had lived out that part of her life with her.

Some who could remind Fate that this was not her past…That she was Fate T. Harlaown and _not _Fate Testa—

"Fate-chan!"

That voice…Fate looked up, and sure enough, she saw Nanoha descending from the sky towards her. Nanoha landed with perfect precision right next to Fate, smiling her uplifting smile that never failed to raise Fate's spirits.

"Nanoha, how did you—"

"Chrono-kun asked me to come, so I came." Nanoha glanced at Linith, then at Karel, who was picked up by the two officers who had come with Nanoha. "How—"

"I'm sorry, Nanoha," Fate interrupted her, hanging her head and staring at the ground. "I shouldn't have gotten so involved with her, or else I would have noticed Linith moving, and then Karel wouldn't have gotten hurt and Vivio wouldn't have vanished. I'm so sorry..."

"I heard," Nanoha said, but rather than sounding disappointed Fate heard worry in her friend's voice. "But I trust you, Fate-chan, remember? I know that you'll find a way to get Vivio home safely."

"Then why are you here?" Fate asked, confused.

Nanoha smiled softly, switching Raising Heart to her other hand so that she could clasp fingers with Fate. "Chrono-kun called me for _you_. If you need someone to talk to, someone to give you a hug, someone to watch your back in a fight—I'm here for you, Fate-chan."

And just like that, Fate felt the miserable anxiety drain away. Nanoha reminded her of what she had gained over the years, and even if what Fate had now wasn't what she had hoped for when she had been a lonely child, she loved it. Fate T. Harlaown had moved past regrets, and she felt almost sheepish for having forgotten that.

All she did in return was squeeze Nanoha's hand and say, "Thank you."

Nanoha's smile widened and she squeezed back, and Fate knew that her oldest friend understood.

**O**

A king's bedroom was nearly as large as the _Claudia's_ bridge.

The walls stretched upwards twice as high as a normal room, and the pillars extending from the walls provided surfaces for ancient tapestries to hang from. The metallic hues made the room feel cold although the floor itself radiated warmth. A massive bed had been shoved into the corner, untouched, while the rest of the furniture clustered at the center of the room.

Vivio knew that she was gaping like a beached fish as she stared at the massive tank laid on its side, the glass vibrating slightly with a low hum and emitting a dim light.

The young girl curled up in a foetal position wasn't another Fate.

This was _Alicia_.

All the blood drained from Vivio's face when she saw the woman sitting beside the tank, caressing the glass as if the woman imagined that she could actually touch the girl inside. A woman with long grey hair and sunken purple eyes—Vivio had seen pictures of her while she had been smiling and happy.

She was smiling now.

Precia Testarossa…

To Nanoha-mama, she had been an enemy. To Fate-mama…she had been "Mother". So what exactly did that make her to Vivio? It had been easy to listen to Fate-mama's forgiving memories when Precia had just been a name instead of a reality.

Vivio's first thought was, _Vivio Takamachi—your mamas beat Precia once, so you can't do any less. _And her second was, _This is my _grandmother!

Precia stirred, pulling her eyes away from her daughter with effort to look at the open door.

"Who is this girl?"

Vivio stumbled as Fate nudged at her shoulder with Bardiche, a clear prompt. "Officer Cadet Vivio Takamachi, ma'am."

"Takamachi…" Precia repeated, musing over the name. Vivio couldn't read her expression, the nervous tension making her twitchy.

"She's one of the TSAB officers who tried to stop me on Ruwella," Fate supplied.

"Hm." Precia looked at Vivio. One of her hands paused in its slow stroking of the glass and adjusted a small blanket that was draped on her lap. She didn't look very well, and Vivio wondered why. Maybe she could use that to her advantage—she still had Sacred Heart, and if she could outmanoeuvre Fate she might manage to get away far enough to hide. But there was no point in running if she couldn't find a way to teleport back, or if Uncle Chrono hadn't sent anyone after her yet. Besides, even as Vivio looked back at Precia and saw how the woman coughed wetly into one hand, she couldn't forget the sight of her Fate-mama collapsed in a hole punched into the pavement from a cross-dimensional attack.

_She's dangerous._

"I know you." Precia's eyelids lowered, her expression shifting from bored attention into something that made Vivio shiver. "You're that girl-mage who destroyed my Garden."

"That's my Nanoha-mama," Vivio declared, blushing at the hint of self-deprecation that had slipped into her proud retort.

"I thought that you said Enforcer Fate was your mother," Fate said from beside Vivio.

"Fate?" A slow, crooked smile spread across Precia's lips.

Vivio swallowed, fighting to keep her knees from shaking. "They're both my mothers." Should she be telling her captors such things? TSAB protocol said that she should only tell them her name and her rank, and nothing else. However…this was her _grandmother_, in a way. And also her…whatever this Fate's relation to her was. This was her…her _family._

"You're Fate's daughter?"

Next to her, Vivio saw Fate flinch slightly—a twinge of hurt in her face at hearing her name used that way?

Vivio nodded.

Precia regarded her closely, then smiled, her face softening. "Then you're my granddaughter, aren't you?" She pointed at the chair across from her, placed at the foot of Alicia's glass tube. "Have a seat."

"…Thank you, ma'am." Nervously, Vivio stepped forward and perched on the edge of the chair, locking her hands on her lap around Kris to hide her unease, and so that she could quickly transform if needed.

Fate didn't sit. "Oka-san, I have to go save Linith. The TSAB captured her before we could escape together."

"Sit by Alicia for a while, Fate." Precia leaned back on the couch, letting the cushions support her weight. She held up a hand, cutting off Fate's confused protest. "Don't worry, Fate—Linith can take care of herself."

Vivio saw Fate acquiesce and sit on the floor next to the floating Alicia, whispering something to her sister. But she had been watching Precia the whole time, and Vivio felt a cold shock at the odd languid expression on Precia's face as the old woman said satisfactorily, "We don't have to worry about Linith."

**O**

Nanoha would have liked to hug her Fate-chan, but the sound of a hoarse gasp behind her interrupted the moment. She had only seen Fate's face go that pale once before, and would have never wanted to see it again.

"What's wrong?" Fate cried, rushing over and waving a hand to dissipate the binds around Linith, who had shifted from her cat form into that of a young woman, sprawled out on the pavement. Nanoha bounded over too, and was about to reach out for Linith but the cat-eared familiar groaned, managing to sit up weakly.

Linith glanced down, a small sad smile on her lips as her bangs hid her eyes. "Ah, so that's it then." She put a trembling hand on her chest, her fingers already ghostly translucent. "The contract is done."

"What?" said Nanoha.

"You're disappearing?" Fate exclaimed, her face anguished. She reached out a hand but stopped just before her fingers touched Linith's shoulder.

"It's done," Linith said quietly, her breaths coming slower and slower. Nanoha made a small distressed sound in her throat, and caught Linith's hand as it fluttered weakly at them. The dying familiar's touch was cold and tingling, like touching pure magic as her physical body turned back into the magic that had given her a second life.

Linith slumped, a weary sigh escaping her cracked lips. "So we have found it..."

"What have you found?" Fate asked, a mixture of frustration and compassion on her face.

"The means," Linith whispered, "to bring the young lady back. Not just the right Jewel...but...the means..."

"What do you mean?" Fate cried, but it was too late.

Nanoha felt all sensation between her cupped hands vanish, her arms falling uselessly to her sides as Linith disappeared, vanishing into nothing as if she had never been there at all. And she heard Fate groan, the sound an agonized whimper as the blonde collapsed on her knees, her head in her hands. Nanoha knelt and hugged her tightly, pressing Fate's bowed head to her chest.

"Not again," she heard Fate moan, before starting to cry.

"Fate-chan—"

"We _have _to find them." Fate pulled herself up, pale and shaking. "You heard what Linith said...Mother found the _means._ Linith didn't disappear when I handed my clone the Jewel."

"_Vivio,_" Nanoha breathed, feeling cold as the realization sunk in. "The means is Vivio."

**O**

"You're very quiet," Precia commented, "for a girl who is meeting her grandmother and aunt for the first time."

"By aunt, you meant Fate-chan, right?" Vivio dared to say, smiling slightly. "We talked a bit earlier already."

Oh…it probably wasn't a good idea to bait Precia. But nothing happened, or at least Precia acted like nothing had happened.

"Aren't you curious about your lost family?"

"Kind of," Vivio conceded honestly. She looped her ankles together, swinging her legs slightly. "Why were you so cruel to my mom? Fate-mama?"

Precia looked disapproving of the question, her lined brow furrowing, but she didn't appear too angry. "Cruel? You must be mistaken."

"Um…I doubt it."

"I wanted to make her strong." Precia sighed, and the sense of theatrics made Vivio more doubtful of Precia's answers. "It's a pity that she had been swayed by weaker associations. Besides, she was the second child—you don't want to make the same mistakes with your children twice, after all."

"Mistakes?" Vivio choked out, feeling frustration and incredulousness rising in her chest.

"Yes, you want to learn from your mistakes." Her purple eyes drifted over to the clone Fate, who was still murmuring to Alicia. "I didn't let my new daughter make the same foolish mistakes Linith allowed."

"So Linith—this _new _Linith—she's your familiar, and not Fate-chan's?"

"I said it already, didn't I?" Annoyed, Precia coughed lightly. "I didn't make the same mistakes this time."

Arf had been the best thing for her Fate-mama, Vivio knew! Anyone could tell, especially when they brought it up to Arf herself, and just seeing Arf's sad and self-guilt over things she didn't have the power to do in the past told the story.

"Arf loved Fate-mama, when you didn't," accused Vivio. It was uncomfortable, speaking this way to an adult, to her grandmother, but Nanoha-mama had always told her to be honest about her feelings.

"That's not the case now."

Vivio squinted, holding Kris closer to herself. Precia didn't _look _like she was lying…and clearly, the clone Fate really loved Precia like a mother, so that means that it's not a lie, right? "Do you love Fate-chan? But you're using her like you used Fate-mama, to find the Jewel Seeds for you."

"She's doing it of her own free will," replied Precia, glancing sideways to smile in that motherly pride way at the back of Fate's head. "My Fate wants to save her older sister." Precia turned to look at Vivio, her gaze intense and burning with passion. "Don't you want to save your aunt? To save Alicia too…we're all family, after all."

Vivio hesitated. She looked over at the encased Alicia. The curled up girl looked exactly like her Fate-mama…of course, they had to be, since her mama was a clone of Alicia…and so was this Fate, but with Fate-mama's memories. Three people with the same face, but they weren't the same. But still, they _were _all the same family…

"But we can't," Vivio said finally. "Magic can't bring back the dead. Everyone knows that." It was one of the first lessons any mage got—although of course, in elementary school they were taught that fact through fables and little stories and such. It was only through her reading in the Infinity Library that Vivio got to see what kind of trouble had been caused in the past by mages who tried to overcome that impossible barrier.

Precia Testarossa had been widely cited, in fact.

"Our _current _magic," Precia countered, smiling widely. She waved one hand about the air, the jewel at her wrist flashing. "But look where we are! Al-Hazard, the ultimate pinnacle of magic…where the ancients performed miracles that were nothing but ordinary feats to them. You saw the city—even ruined, look at what they had achieved!" She chuckled, the sound hoarse from her damaged throat. "Twenty years ago, I had decided to find the path _here _because I knew then, just as I know now, that with the right kind of magic, we _can bring back the dead._"

"You can't!" Vivio protested, perching on the edge of her seat. It felt better to argue when her feet were planted on the floor, since they had been dangling off the edge of the chair before. "You even mentioned it yourself in your earlier dissertations about familiars, Precia-san—that even familiar magic didn't truly bring back the dead, but captures a soul right before true death to implant into a new body. Resurrecting the dead is impossible, and even if it was…" Vivio hesitated, losing her wind once she had drifted from evidence into opinion. "…dying is just another part of life. We have to learn to let them go."

Precia tilted her head, the motion reminding Vivio of an eagle sizing up its prey. "And who taught you that lesson? Your _mother_?" The mocking tone in her voice made Vivio scowl. Then something serious and very sane entered Precia's eyes as she said, "If _you _were dead, do you really believe that your mother wouldn't do _anything _to save you?"

…If Precia hadn't asked her in that way, Vivio could have easily deflected it. But she was aware that Fate had given up pretending not to eavesdrop, and was watching her too, waiting for an answer.

They were a lot alike, that Fate and Vivio…both of them weren't truly their mothers' daughters, but yet at the same time, that family bond was there. Undeniably there.

Would her mamas do _anything _to save Vivio's life?

"…I don't know," Vivio admitted. Kris twitched under the pressure of her tight grip around his middle. "But if it was going to hurt someone, then I know that they wouldn't!"

"Who am I hurting?" Precia asked mildly, smiling again. "Think about it, my granddaughter—all I need is the right Jewel Seed for Alicia. Rather than harming someone, I am restoring a life that had been stolen!"

Vivio bit her lip, trembling.

Precia did have a point…nowhere in the books Vivio read mentioned _why _it was bad to try and bring back the dead. All the literature seemed to agree that it was an impossibility, and most attempts had been a mixture of superstitious rituals mixed with sacrifices. But if Precia was right…if Al-Hazard technology could really revive Alicia without harming anyone…then was that the right thing to do?

"Rather than try to stop me," Precia said, holding out a thin hand towards Vivio, her eyes keen, "Will you help me save my daughter?"

**O**

It took every ounce of Nanoha's persuasive skills to get Fate to agree to retire for the night to her quarters. Neither she nor Chrono wanted to make it an order, since all that would do is load more anxiety and conflicting feelings on Fate, so Nanoha had slowly and persuasively coaxed Fate into getting some rest to be ready for a rescue mission.

She was glad that Chrono had Amy call her.

"Fate-chan, I'm kind of tired…join me?" Nanoha held up the covers to Fate's bunk, having already curled up under the blankets and was propping herself up on one arm. The bed hadn't quite been made with two people in mind, but they'd manage somehow.

Fate hesitated, pausing in her pacing. She had changed into—more like Nanoha had changed her into—casual clothes, but held herself rigid enough to still be in uniform. Apprehension flickered in her red eyes, and Nanoha fought to keep herself from blushing when she realized why Fate was hesitating; blushing would probably accidentally _confirm _Fate's thoughts! Nanoha tried to inject the warmest, most comforting and platonic tones into her voice as she elaborated, "I'm worried about you, Fate-chan—I think you could use some sleep. Please?"

Fate bit her lip, then sighed and walked over, letting Nanoha cuddle her close and stroke her hair. Without Nanoha's asking, Raising Heart dimmed the lights down before flying to rest beside Bardiche on the bedside shelf.

They lay there in the dim room, silent.

"…Fate-chan? Do you want to talk about it?"

A sigh. "About what part?"

"Any part you want."

"…"

"…"

"I know that I shouldn't think this way…but I keep asking myself: What did I do wrong?" A wet tear dripped onto Nanoha's neck as Fate sniffed, laying her cheek on Nanoha's shoulder. "Why did Mother love Alicia and that clone, but not _me?_"

Nanoha wordlessly began rubbing Fate's back as the blonde trembled.

"Why didn't Mother try to find me, if she had realized that it was alright to love someone other than Alicia-nee-san? Instead, she…she made herself another daughter to love. Nanoha, I would have forgiven Mother. I already have."

"Yes, I know."

"Why did she call her _Fate_? I've been thinking and thinking about that, and I just don't know. Mother…she had said that she hated me. She didn't want to call me after Alicia, who she loved. But then why did she name her after me?"

"Maybe…" Nanoha paused, not sure if she should be speculating or not. "Maybe Precia wanted to be reminded of you." She left it at that—knowing her own feelings towards Precia, Nanoha would probably extrapolate a more negative interpretation. That wasn't what Fate needed at the moment.

"Nanoha," whispered Fate.

"Yes?" she answered just as softly.

"If…if I had been her…if I had known that Mother had wanted the Jewel Seeds to try and save Alicia…"

"Precia didn't want to _save _Alicia, Fate-chan," Nanoha had to interrupt. "She wanted to bring her back. Alicia was already dead."

She felt Fate flinch.

Gently, Nanoha said, "What would you have done, Fate-chan?"

"…For my sister? If I had known, Nanoha…" Fate pushed herself up slightly so that they were looking at each other, her eyes a deep black-red in the darkness. "I would have done anything in my power to get those Jewel Seeds. Even if it meant…fighting anyone who tried to stop me. I probably would have hurt you, Nanoha. And I wouldn't have cared."

"You would have cared," Nanoha said, brushing some blonde locks behind Fate's ear. "Even if you had known about Alicia, you're a good person, Fate-chan."

"I don't know," Fate said in a small voice, her tone shaky. "If I had failed Mother, failed Alicia-nee-san…right and wrong wouldn't have…mattered…"

"I believe in you." Nanoha reached out in the dark and clasped Fate's hand. "I believe in you, Fate."

"Nanoha…if I was _her_…if I had grown up the way she lived, then I might not have taken your hand after all." Fate bit her lip, shame etched into her face like a brand. "I might not have let myself try to see your side of things, if I'd had something so important to fight for."

Nanoha repressed a shiver.

It was exactly that truth that had Fate dread what Vivio would be facing.

She didn't need Fate to finish her confession. The haunted guilt in Fate's eyes told it all.

_If I had grown up with Mother loving me…_

_ For my family…_

…_I would do _anything_ they needed of me._

**O**

Vivio didn't know how to answer.

So she dodged the question by asking one of her own. "Do you really think that it's best for Alicia to bring her back? What if…_you're _the one who needs her more?"

Precia drew herself back, affronted. "This has never been about _me,_" she practically hissed, her body twitching in agitation. "Alicia didn't deserve to suffer for _my _mistakes! She was just a girl…I would do anything to have traded my life for hers…" Sadness flooded into Precia's voice, and Vivio knew for certain that it was not an act. "I lived my years, made my choices…but Alicia had her choices taken from her. I _will _get them back for her."

It shouldn't be right…what Precia was doing just _couldn't _be the right thing to do. It was against the law. But…even though her Nanoha-mama had always told Vivio to be a good, responsible citizen, undoubtedly Nanoha had taught her that doing the right thing was more important than worrying about whether it was against the rules or not. All of Vivio's aunts and uncles seemed to live by the same philosophy—Nanoha-mama had shown her way to all of them before.

Surely, giving a young girl another chance at life _had _to be the right thing to do?

Didn't Nanoha-mama give Fate-mama that same chance, fourteen years ago?

Vivio saw Precia smile, and she realized that her wavering conviction was probably written all over her face. Quickly she schooled her expression, but too late.

"Now that Fate has gotten us the Jewel Seed we need," Precia said, waving a hand at the clone sitting on the floor, "All we need to do is find the correct method to infuse the Jewel into Alicia's body." A small coughing fit interrupted Precia, making Fate spring to her feet and quickly pour a glass of water for her mother. Precia gave her a small smile and drank, letting her breathing ease.

Vivio quickly sat back down—she had jumped up too when Precia had started coughing.

"Thank you, dear," Precia patted Fate's head, and the blonde smiled, her whole face lighting up. However, concern still shone in Fate's eyes as she took the glass back from Precia's trembling hand.

"This is absolutely critical—my poor Alicia…" Precia fixed her eyes on Alicia's tank, the sickly pale light emitting from the glass casting a greenish glow across Precia's face. "It's been too long…We must make it work. I won't get another chance."

"From…" Vivio paused, trying to wet her dry mouth. "From what I've read about the Jewel Seeds, they fulfill the wishes of a living animal or person. I don't think it would quite work for Alicia, since she's…well…dead."

"Yes," Precia agreed bitterly. "But the theory should still be sound…the release of power from an invoked Lost Logia should be more than enough to provide the kind of magic needed to provide a new life. But I don't think that there's been a case of a Jewel Seed successfully merging with a human."

Vivio frowned, working the problem over in her head. "I've never heard of any either, but it's happened with Relics."

"Relics?"

"Yeah. They're Lost Logia too, but they're compatible with people." Vivio shivered, looking down. The memories were still fresh, even if most of the terror had been in her past. "Jail Scaglietti had told Lutecia-chan that the right Relic could revive Megane-san, who had been in a coma. Well, he might have been lying to her though…"

"But I assume that it hadn't actually been done before?" Precia asked, sighing in disappointment.

"Well, actually, it has," Vivio told her. "During the JS Incident, Jail…he put them inside some people—a friend of mine."

"A friend…" Precia sighed, shaking her head. She touched her red-nailed fingertips to her forehead, looking exasperatedly disappointed. "Vivio, something like this can't be done on guesswork and hearsay. You know what's at stake here. It's my daughter…it's your aunt."

Vivio gripped Kris tighter. Precia had turned to Fate, both of them trying to regather their spirits after the false hope. But it wasn't a false hope, and Vivio had to let them know that.

She took a breath. "Jail had put one inside me."

Precia turned around, her dark eyes widening. Fate gaped at Vivio, the same astonishment mirrored on her face just like her mother's. They looked so alike…exactly like Fate-mama, whenever Nanoha-mama or Vivio surprised her.

"He put a Relic inside me," Vivio said, biting her lip. "So that I could power the Saint's Cradle for him. It…h-h-hurt a lot. But he did do it."

Precia went still. "_You _had a Lost Logia placed inside of you…successfully?"

A chill went down Vivio's spine. "Um…yes…" she said tentatively.

But Precia wasn't looking at her any longer, having risen from the couch and was pacing in a limping, twitchy manner. Fate was clearly worried, but she didn't seem to dare break her mother's concentration. Bardiche, in its Storage form, flipped between her fingers as Fate looked back and forth between Vivio and Precia with a tense frown. Her looks made Vivio edge out on her seat to put her feet on the floor.

"I see, I see…the girl has made it all so clear now…perhaps my method had been wrong…Relic or Jewel Seed, they are both Lost Logia, so maybe it isn't the source but the way…" Precia's hands quivered as she spoke to herself, clutching at her chest as if trying to contain her excitement or another coughing fit. "That may be why my previous attempts have all failed…not a matter of the human subjects, or the Jewel serial number, but my procedure was faulty…but how to correct it? A prototype, yes…"

Precia stopped, her gray hair hanging in long limp strands before her face. Then she tilted her head, her purple eyes peering brightly through her hair straight at Vivio. "Yes…I should examine a specimen where the procedure was successful…"

Vivio tripped backwards over her chair, the loud crash jarring her out of her shock. She sprawled over the arm and rolled to her feet, putting space between herself and the eagerly watching Precia. "W…What?" she stammered nervously. "Precia-san…"

"I just need to examine you," Precia said feverishly, smiling a falsely assuring smile. "It won't hurt, I promise. You'll help, right?"

"No, I think I'll pass, sorry," Vivio gulped. She stepped back involuntarily, and only realized too late that her retreating towards the door would probably set Precia off after the fully crazed fury exploded in Precia's gaze.

"How dare you defy your grandmother!" Precia screamed, her staff materializing in her right hand. "Come back here at once!"

"Sacred Heart, SET UP!" Vivio yelled.

"How dare you!" shrieked Precia, staggering under the emotional outburst. "Fate, capture her! I won't hurt her, it won't hurt at all…it's for Alicia!"

Fate had already been in her Barrier Jacket, so in the time that it took Vivio's Barrier Jacket to fully form Fate had already took to the air, brandishing Bardiche.

"**Arc Saber."**

Vivio tucked and rolled, letting the yellow blade arc over her and strike the wall. She charged straight for Fate, leaping into the air herself. Dodging two sets of lightning binds, Vivio attacked with a flurry of punches, hitting Fate's auto-shield with some hits and being parried by Bardiche's staff with others.

"**Photon Lancer."**

Vivio closed in again, getting behind the forming energy spheres and so making Fate's attack useless. Unlike her Fate-mama's upgraded Plasma Lancer, Vivio knew that the shots from Photon Lancer only travelled in one direction, so she got in close and struck Fate with her armoured fists.

"Accel Smash!"

Fate yelped when Vivio slugged her in the stomach, barely twisting out of Vivio's next attack and diving towards the floor. The room wasn't large enough for Fate to loop her, so Vivio followed, cutting Fate off and launching a kick that nearly tore Bardiche out of her opponent's hands.

"Just let me go!" Vivio cried as she seized Bardiche's shaft with both hands, grappling with Fate. "I don't want to fight you!"

"Then stop!" Fate pleaded.

**"Blitz Rush."**

Vivio lost her grip as Fate vanished in a super burst of speed, zipping to the far side of the room in an eyeblink.

"No one has to get hurt, if you stop now!"

"I can't!" Vivio readied herself. After seeing Precia's sudden mood change, Vivio couldn't trust anything Precia had told her.

Fate was going to rush her, get in close to use her scythe. With Alicia's tank and Precia so close, there was no way Fate would risk using a shooting spell. Vivio could use that to her advantage.

Just as Vivio expected, Fate blitzed towards Vivio, Bardiche's scythe form carving upwards towards her face. Vivio made a sharp crescent turn and thrust out one gauntleted hand.

_A close range shot should neutralize her!_

"DIVINE BUSTER!"

Fate immediately dodged, but the shot wouldn't have hit her anyway.

Fate's Sonic Move had moved her faster than Vivio had estimated. Her Divine Buster shot behind Fate's fluttering cape, shredding the edge into black and red strips.

But the beam kept going.

Even this short range version had more than enough space in the small room to keep going at full power.

"No!" Precia and Vivio screamed.

The rainbow beam struck Alicia's tank—and promptly exploded in a cloud of glass and fluid and smoke.

* * *

_**Author's Note: I finally got to the chapter ending that I wrote this whole fic for! And now is where I'm starting to justify the "Tragedy" part of the fic description… **_

_**One more chapter and an epilogue to go…**_


	4. Chapter 4

**Blood Calls To Blood**

Chapter 4

A wet plop broke the silence after the explosion; the thick preserving fluid had dripped out of the shattered tank, dropping Alicia's body onto the ground, her thin limbs sprawling outwards on the broken glass.

"Alicia-nee-san?" Fate whispered, horrified.

Vivio jerked as a terrible sound filled the air, then she realized that it was Precia screaming.

"_YOOOOOOOOU!_"

Something struck Vivio in the face, bolts of purple lightning erupting in her vision as Vivio tumbled out of the air and hit the ground hard. Groaning, Vivio rolled to her knees, trying to clear her vision.

"I didn't mea—"

"_ALICIAAAAA!"_ Precia shrieked, her eyes bulging and bloodshot. "GO BACK, YOU CAN'T BE OUTSIDE—YOU'LL DIE! _SHE KILLED YOU_!"

Vivio screamed as a concentrated Photon Burst blew her backwards and smashing her into the wall. Even though Kris had transformed her Jacket to Contact Mode the attack had blown through Vivio's defenses, leaving her whimpering in the crater she had formed, black spots in her vision.

Dimly, Vivio saw Precia raise her hand again, dark purple magic gathering at her palm. She had to get a shield up…or some kind of defence…but she couldn't move fast enough, her arms weren't cooperating.

"Please…" Vivio gasped.

Coldly, Precia snarled, "_Photon Bullet_."

The burst of light from Precia's fingertips blinded Vivio. She waited for the agony of the high-speed bullet ripping through her torn Barrier Jacket…but the pain didn't come.

When her vision cleared, Vivio became aware of a golden glow in front of her, silhouetting a single straining figure.

"Fate-chan…" croaked Vivio, coughing up dust.

The clone Fate gritted her teeth, her left hand out-thrust and holding the centre of her shield in front of Vivio, absorbing Precia's attack. Precia howled and increased the intensity, sending another torrent of magic at them but Fate hunched her shoulders and dug in. Vivio saw Fate's black glove tear, then shred as flecks of blood sprayed onto Fate's arm.

But still, Fate held her shield up until Precia's attack cut out abruptly.

"YOU!" Precia staggered, barely staying upright by clinging onto her staff. A thin trickle of blood had escaped her mouth—her coughing brought up red-tinted spit. "YOU KILLED HER!"

"Mother, please!" Fate cried, cradling her injured hand against her chest. "You shouldn't be up, you're going to hurt yourself!"

"YOU KILLED MY ALICIA!" Precia's blooded eyes glared at Vivio, staring right past her way-ward daughter as if Fate wasn't even there. "I'LL HAVE YOU IN PIECES!"

"Mother, stop it!"

"ALICIA! YOU WERE THE ONLY ONE…TRAITORS, THE LOT OF THEM!" Precia screeched, rocking on her feet, a maddened gleam in her eyes. "You were the only daughter I had…the only one I could trust." Something crazy and yet very, very sane filled Precia's entire countenance. "We failed you, Alicia…we will pay for it, I promise you…"

And she reversed her staff, bringing it down onto the stone floor with enraged might.

"NO!" Fate yelled.

The gem at the end of Precia's staff shattered on the ground.

"I said it before," Precia whispered, grinning as blood oozed past her lips to drip down her chin, dropping dark red dots on her purple sweater. "I would give my life for you, Alicia…"

"MOM!" Fate made to run over, but had to jump back as one of the chandeliers broke from the ceiling, smashing on the floor. Vivio grunted as she heaved herself out of the hole in the wall, falling onto her side before climbing to her hands and knees.

"Alicia…" Precia said, her head angled back and a small smile on her lips. Then she choked and fell, crumpling and hitting the ground hard, her purple eyes blank as they stared at Alicia's still, pale body.

"Mother?" Fate asked, bewilderingly. "Mom?"

Not a breath was heard in the silence. The ground shook, thin crackling echoing through the walls. Vivio let out her held breath, jumping at the sudden sound she had made.

"Mom?" Fate called again, her red eyes full of fear. She flew over to Alicia and Precia's slumped forms, staring down at them.

In her gut, Vivio could feel the whole place shaking. Without that gem Precia had, this remnant of Al-Hazard was coming apart.

"Mom?" Fate sounded terribly lost.

Vivio pushed herself to her feet, stumbling a bit as the ground reverberated. She didn't know what to do. What was she supposed to do?

Vivio felt just as lost.

"**Put Out."**

Vivio's eyes widened as a Jewel Seed emerged from Bardiche's eye, hovering before Vivio.

"Bardiche," Fate whispered, her words slurred with unshed tears. "Transmit the coordinates out of Al-Hazard to Officer Takamachi's device."

"**Affirmative."**

Finally finding her voice, Vivio asked hesitantly, "What…"

"Take it."

One of Fate's gloved hands came up, pushing the Jewel towards Vivio's general direction. The other girl hadn't looked up from the tragic scene at her feet.

"Take it," Fate repeated emptily.

Vivio gently closed her fingers around the glittering Jewel. "Fate-chan, I—"

"Go."

Vivio stopped speaking.

"Please, just go." Bardiche fell to the ground with a clatter, its eye dimming. Fate slipped onto her knees in the broken glass beside Alicia's body. The tattered edge of Fate's cape made bloody streaks across the floor wherever the inside liner was face up, making the eerily unmarked Alicia appear more realistically dead.

But then again, she had been dead for a long time.

Nanoha-mama would have known what to say at this time. Vivio desperately tried to find the right words, but she couldn't. So all she could do was say, "Fate-chan…we have to go."

She received no answer. A nauseating sensation sparked over Vivio's skin, and she recognized the warning brushes of a dimensional anomaly. Al-Hazard was coming apart at its seams, and it was only a toss-up between whether or not the entire city-plane was going to go supernova or implode on itself.

"Fate-chan, this place is coming down." Vivio bit her lip, then reached out and brushed a hand on the lightning mage's shoulder. "We have to get out of here."

After a few seconds, Fate just shook her head.

"Fate-chan…"

"Please go."

Vivio swallowed, her eyes unmoving from Fate's slumped back. The Jewel Seed dug heavily into her hand as if impatiently demanding action from her.

Vivio wanted to go _home._

She wanted to see her family.

But…there Fate knelt, sitting defeated beside the bodies of the only family members she knew. Occasionally one of Fate's gloved hands would twitch, as if wanting to touch one of them, but always halting before executing the motion.

The ground rumbled again, releasing another small shower of dust from the cracking murals.

This whole dimension was about to collapse.

_Kris, do you have the coordinates processed?_

Her device nodded his head.

She could just go.

Vivio could go home.

There was nothing she could do for the Testarossas. She could just…go home.

**O**

Fate could not find the tears for this.

Like a burn that seared so deeply the pain became numbing, Fate could just kneel there, staring at her sister's body, broken and sprawled on the shattered glass. Preserving fluid trickled in thick streams outwards from Alicia's body, the strong chemical smell hiding all other odours.

What was Fate supposed to do now?

She didn't want to leave her sister lying so…exposed and doll-like on the ground. But yet Fate couldn't muster the courage or energy to move.

Fate wished that her mother could tell her what to do now. Precia was staring at them, her purple eyes bloodshot and glassy, dribbles of thickened blood smeared down her chin and staining the collar of her favourite purple sweater. Fate pretended to herself that Mother was indeed looking at both Alicia and her. That look on her mother's still face could almost be peaceful, as if all the terrible weight she held around her heart could finally be let go. Maybe that hint of mocking disappointment was for herself, for failing to save Alicia-nee-san. Yes, that would be like Mother.

Or maybe Enforcer Fate had been right all along.

What a terrible daughter Fate was…to be doubting her mother's love when she was looking at Mother's corpse.

Fate…had failed.

Mother was dead.

Alicia-nee-san could never be saved now. Exposure to the air would have destroyed what fragile equilibrium between stasis and degeneration that her body had been struggling with for the last few years.

The hardness of the floor didn't matter to Fate, nor did she twitch at the glass cutting into her knees through her stockings.

She wished that she could cry.

"Fate-chan," Vivio's quiet voice by her shoulder made her flinch.

"Go," Fate whispered hollowly.

"I…" Vivio paused, and even though Fate couldn't see her face she imagined that she knew what kind of conflict must be flickering across the TSAB mage's face. Then in a half sighing, half solemn tone, Vivio said, "I'll stay with you."

Fate gave some kind of twitch—she wasn't sure what exactly that meant. But Vivio knelt down beside her, close enough for them to touch, but she didn't try to touch her.

In the distance, Fate could hear the whooshing booms of buildings collapsing, the entire earth vibrating constantly from the many falling towers.

"I'm…I'm sorry about Alicia-san."

Fate felt a hot trail score down her cheek, a line of warmth through her cold numbness. "You didn't mean to," she said emptily.

"I'm sorry." Vivio repeated anyway.

Even breathing seemed like an exhausting chore. Every breath was a jagged pant to Fate.

She had never touched Alicia-nee-san before. Fate kind of wanted to, but she couldn't make herself reach out. Somewhere between the thought and the desired motion her body failed her.

Her sister and her mother were dead.

"Why…" Fate stopped, waiting under her dry mouth was wet enough for her to continue. "Why didn't you leave?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Fate could see Vivio's shoulders rise then fall in a silent sigh. She could see only Vivio's profile and the clearness of her red eye through limp blond bangs as the other girl said, "Because…even if we've just met, you're still my family. Even if you don't think of me that way, _I _think of you like that. So I'm not going to leave you." Vivio turned to face Fate fully, her mismatched eyes mournful, although Fate still hadn't moved at all. A sad smile twitched into being on Vivio's lips, her features pale but with a determined blush. "Family…has to stick together."

"But—" Fate closed her eyes. "—you shouldn't have to."

"I _want _to." Yet still, despite Vivio's brave words, Fate could hear her tears. Vivio sniffed, then adopted a cheerier tone, trying to mask her terror. "Nobody out-stubborns a Takamachi when it comes to making new friends, people like to say."

The chandelier broke from the ceiling as another shudder shook the building, smashing the tiles in a tinkle of ceramic and metal.

"Vivio…"

The other girl had pulled her knees up to her chest, looking very vulnerable even though she was still in her full Barrier Jacket. Her odd coloured eyes turned to look at Fate. "Yeah?"

"That other Fate…she's your mother?"

Vivio's lip trembled, but she did a valiant job controlling her tremours to answer without crying. "Yes…she and Nanoha-mama. Both of them are my mothers."

"Vivio…what is she like? The other me."

Vivio's breath caught, the sharp intake like the beginning of a sob. "She's kind. Really…kind."

Fate felt tears running down her face, and she scrubbed them away with her hand, wincing at the sting of salt on the little cuts in her palm.

A draft blew into the room, making Fate's cape flutter. Pieces of the palace were collapsing and pushing the air outwards towards them and whooshing into the great hall.

"Does she love you?"

Vivio's expression twisted, but her voice came out worse, the sharp intake of breath like the beginning of a sob. "Yes. Fate-mama loves me a lot. Just as much as Nanoha-mama does."

"All mothers love their daughters, right?" Fate opened her eyes and let her attention shift over to Precia, her mother's corpse covered in golden dust from the crumbling ceiling. "All of them?"

Vivio didn't answer her—the heterochromatic girl was stifling her choking sobs in her Barrier Jacket sleeve.

_All of them._

Fate reached over with her torn fingers and laid her hand on Vivio's gauntlet.

**O**

Vivio stared at the bloody fingers on the back of her hand, then looked up at Fate's timidly smiling face.

"Let's go."

"What?" Vivio breathed.

"You…" Fate looked down for a moment before raising her head again. "You still have a family who is going to miss you if you die. Just because I've…I've lost my family doesn't mean that you have to too." She squeezed Vivio's hand. "And I can see that you're not going to leave without—"

Rock grinding on rock made Vivio look up, then jerk back in shock. The entire wall was leaning inwards at them, the pillars cracking down the middle as tiles fell from the ceiling.

The spell came automatically to her lips. "DIVINE BUSTER!"

The wall and ceiling blew outwards, sending chunks of stone flying out onto the air. Now that there was no more roof above them, Vivio gaped at the sight of the crimson horizon folding inwards toward them as tall buildings collapsed in clouds of dust and scintillating glass in the distance. Dark clouds swirled overhead, some of them arching towards the ground in massive twisters that roared across the streets, picking up debris that added to their mass.

"Let's go!" Vivio yelled over the chaotic wind, getting to her feet while holding an arm up to protect her eyes from the dust. "Kris! Open a connection to the _Claudia!_" Now that she had the coordinates of Al-Hazard in dimensional spacetime, Kris could use their location as a set point to find the _Claudia's _location somewhere in another dimension. Actually, Kris was probably going to look for Bardiche—her mother's Bardiche—since the Devices have already linked identification codes before. But either way…

A screen opened up in front of Vivio, nearly making her cheer with relief.

"VIVIO!" That was her Fate-mama, with Uncle Chrono yelling orders in the background. "Are you alright!"

"I'm fine!" Vivio laughed back, shaky with relief. "I need the _Claudia's _coordinates, Al-Hazard is collapsing and we need to teleport out!"

"Zetec is sending them to your Device now!"

Vivio grimaced, steeling herself for starting the complicated dimensional teleport. Then Fate patted her shoulder, drawing her attention.

"Let me do it!" she said over the wind. "I've done it before, so it'll probably be faster…let Bardiche have the coordinates from your Device."

"Thanks!" Relieved, Vivio grinned at Fate, stroking Kris' head with a finger as her Device complied. He settled back on her shoulder, holding the Jewel Seed tightly. "Yeah, it's probably better for you to do it!"

Fate's yellow teleportation circle glowed under their feet, the lines hazy from dust raised by the heavily shaking ground. But with a rippling flash, the dimensional portal tore open in front of Vivio, the edges swirling madly in the wild winds.

Vivio turned, reaching a hand out.

"Fate-chan, take my—"

It was like Vivio's brain was working in reverse.

She was aware that she was off-balance and falling—then she realized that she had been pushed.

"_I'm sorry._"

Her outstretched hand clutched helplessly at the air as Vivio tumbled into the portal, staring horrified at the closing portal mouth and the shrinking image of Fate's sad red eyes as the clone turned and walked back towards the two corpses.

"FATE!" Vivio screamed, the sound lost in the abyss.

Space was collapsing around Vivio, folding inwards smaller and smaller as Vivio fell further away from the ruined city.

She had the coordinates—she could teleport them back, she had to go back…

But the teleport sucked her along, until Al-Hazard became nothing but a speck of light in the vast blackness.

A soundless blackness that ate up Vivio's desperate screaming.

**O**

Something hard slammed upwards at Vivio—or had she fallen _down? _ The glowing surface of the teleport pad flooded Vivio's vision, making her stagger. Vivio didn't have a chance to figure it out before a pair of arms tackled her, yanking her close.

"Vivio!" Nanoha kissed her forehead urgently, then pulled back, scanning her daughter with worried eyes.

"Let me go!" Vivio cried, struggling, but her mother's grip was surprisingly firm. The white light from the teleport pad burned in Vivio's eyes, chasing away the darkness from the transfer. "I have to go back, _Fate-chan is still there!_" And that's when Vivio looked up and saw that the entire bridge was silently watching the screens—all of them transfixed helplessly by the scene of the entire landscape breaking apart around the ruins of the palace.

"Can't you send one of us there?" Fate cried out, watching the screen in horror.

"I can't—we just have the location, but all the paths to Al-Hazard are collapsing—"

They could see the images from the clone Fate's Device, the picture flickering in and out. Vivio struggled, tears pouring down her cheeks as Nanoha held her tightly. Fate was frozen, staring straight ahead in paralyzed shock.

They could do nothing but watch.

Black…Flickering, the clone Fate was next to Precia and Alicia's bodies, her head bowed.

Black, then a broken image of the three Testarossas, with shards of shattering buildings in the background.

Quick flashes, black, then back on the clone, raising a shaky hand that shook all over the place from the static-y image.

"Ten seconds before the entire dimension disappears," Zetec said quietly.

The clone Fate's raw fingers wobbled, drifting closer and closer to Alicia's still cheek.

Black.

Static.

"Five."

Her torn black glove hovered over her sister's face.

Flashes.

Black.

Vivio's tears burned down her cheeks as she watched.

Static.

Black.

A tranquil expression flashed across the clone's face just as her fingers brushed Alicia's face.

Then the transmission vanished to black.

Vivio's knees gave way, and she felt her mother hold her tighter, supporting Vivio's weight as Vivio sobbed, utterly limp. Nanoha supported her gently, murmuring wordless reassurances in Vivio's ear. Through her tears, Vivio saw Nanoha reach out one hand to Fate, pulling the other woman into her embrace as well.

Vivio and Fate cried, pressed against Nanoha's warm chest.

Here her Nanoha-mama was again, the hero for all of them. No matter the circumstance, Nanoha was a hero who could touch hearts and make a miracle out of tragedy.

A hero Vivio knew that she had failed to be.

"Al-Hazard…is gone."


	5. Epilogue

**Blood Calls To Blood**

Epilogue

Vivio's first thought was relief.

Einhart Stratos looked nothing like Fate-mama…or more precisely, nothing like Fate-chan.

The memory of her empty outstretched hand and those haunting red eyes still throbbed painfully in Vivio's chest. However, Einhart had purple-blue eyes. She was completely different from Fate-chan.

But a few moments later, Vivio realized that she was wrong. Vivio was smiling on the outside, but that was just to hide how shaken up her insides suddenly felt as she shook hands with the silvery-haired girl.

_Something about her…_

Each blow they exchanged during their match exhilarated Vivio, and terrified her at the same time.

_I don't want to fight her! _

But yet she wanted it so much as well, and Vivio couldn't understand why.

Who was this girl? Why did she want to fight Vivio so much?

Vivio couldn't understand her…the anxiety pounded loudly inside her heart, echoing in her hesitant punches. Why were they fighting? Did…did Einhart want to prove something? Vivio struck back, uncertain.

"Thank you very much," Einhart said suddenly, turning around and walking away with a flat expression in her eyes, "for the match."

"Um!" Vivio dropped her fists and stepped forward bewilderedly. "I'm sorry, did I do something to offend you?"

"Not at all."

"Then…um…was I too weak?"

"No," Einhart said over her shoulder. "It's more than enough if playing around is your hobby."

_No…I wasn't playing around!_

_I…_

_I'm afraid…_

_I'm afraid that…I'll misunderstand your feelings._

Vivio…had misunderstood Fate-chan's feelings.

Where she had thought that other Fate had wanted peace, Fate-chan had wanted victory. And when Vivio had thought that Fate wanted friendship, in the end, Fate-chan had… A mistake like that can't ever be undone. Vivio didn't want to ever have to go through that again.

But Nanoha-mama always said that if she fell down, Vivio had to get up by herself.

She had to get up again. Always get up, and keep going.

Instead of guessing…maybe Vivio should try to _listen _instead of try to understand this new, quiet friend of hers.

"Wait!"

Instead of helplessly watching, Vivio was going to learn what Einhart Stratos really wanted. And maybe…maybe Vivio could help her find what she was looking for?

_What it is that Einhart is seeking…I shall do my best to help her._

Yes, that was in Vivio's power to do.

* * *

_**Author's Note: And so I fixed it…somewhat ^_^. Quotes were taken from **_**ViVid. **_**I decided to post the epilogue right away because I love you guys ^_-, and also because I didn't want to get tons of angry reviews for breaking Vivio in the last chapter!**_

_**Chrono's bridge crew member Birkin Zetec is named for the Ford Zetec, an engine brand.**_

_**Thanks to DezoPenguin and RadiantBeam for helping me during my roadblocks while writing. And everyone should thank the persistent folks on Animesuki for this, since they wouldn't let me off the hook until I wrote an epilogue to fix Vivio! =P**_

_**Thanks for reading the product of my twisted mind! =D**_

* * *

**X**

Special Epilogue for spawnofthejudge and RadiantBeam:

"This…is really unusual."

"All the paperwork is not in order, sir?"

"No, but…" A sigh. "We usually don't get new recruits without a referral or a transfer order. And considering your family background…"

"I am permitted to apply for this unit without referral or parental permission, sir."

"Yes, I know…but why?"

"Because I can be an asset to this unit, sir. I…I'm compelled, sir, to do my best to serve, no matter what it takes. I owe it to…to people in my past."

A pause.

Then a thunk of an approval seal echoed in the silence.

"Welcome to the NSIS, Vivio Takamachi."


End file.
